Atwater Village Neighborhood Council

Region: North East Valley

Region: EAST AREA
What is now Atwater Village began originally as a part of Rancho San Rafael, which covered much of what is now Glendale and northeastern Los Angeles. In 1868, W.C.B. Richardson purchased a portion of the rancho and renamed it Rancho Santa Eulalia. This land eventually fell into the family of Harriet Atwater Paramore, for whom the neighborhood was originally named as “Atwater Park”, which was a poppy field at the time it was first subdivided in 1912.
In subsequent decades, residents began to settle in the area. Many new residents were newly prosperous workers, including many working at the nearby DWP substation. Spanish-style houses and bungalows were built in the 1920s to 1940s, many of which still retain their original details. Growth was aided by the construction of a line of the Pacific Electric Railway with its distinctive “red cars”, which ran down Glendale Boulevard. The line, along with the rest of the streetcar system, however, was dismantled in favor of freeways and buses.
The Tam O’Shanter Inn, established in 1922, is one of the oldest restaurants in Los Angeles County. Walt Disney was a frequent patron there.
Franciscan Pottery, a well-known manufacter of pottery and dinnerware, was located in Atwater. The company moved the plant to China in 1978 and the large property is now occupied by Costco, Best Buy, and Toys R Us.
Before Interstate 5 there was a drive-in movie theatre at the corner of Riverside Dr. and Los Feliz for a brief period in the late 1950s.